Wednesday, November 20, 2013

11-11-2013 was a very special day...because... i started *drum-roll* culinary school at le cordon bleu! if you couldn't tell already, i always had passion for food ♥ it started out with eating, where i would go check out restaurants from fine dining to taco trucks & stop everyone from eating, so i can take pictures of the food! (yes, i am definitely one of those who took pictures of food way before "asians who take pictures of food" or "pictures of asians taking pictures of food" became a norm)once technology got better and everyone started taking pictures with their phones, my workload also doubled since i would then use both my camera and my phone for pictures!then, i started writing reviews on yelp, followed by this blog!and of course...having grown up in a family where mom was not only an excellent cook but also an amazing baker, i always liked cooking...even though it really hasn't been too long since i actually started playing & experimenting in the kitchen for fun!

so...while going through a career change few months ago, i had this big idea where i might consider "what i love" as my future career! although i don't necessarily want to become a chef, i definitely want to work in the culinary industry, doing things i am already doing...but professionally & with a lot more knowledge! it was a tough decision because school meant i would have a lot of down time (my program is almost 2 years) & i would have to suck it up and do everything i am not used to, from cleaning to starting out as a 'novice' in the industry at my age!

about two weeks has passed since my first day of school and i already got some 'proud injuries' on my hands & nails from practicing knife cuts and witnessed classmates' crazy wounds from our super-sharp knives!

i am getting used to french terms, having homework everyday & also trying to remember what it was like to use your memorizing skills for my first quizzes!

even though commute is pretty rough & i had to give up on on fashion & beauty five days out of the week, it feels great to be surrounded by people who share the same passion on food & cooking and i am happy that i am getting this chance to learn something i truly love and enjoy!

so look out for some more interesting posts-to-come!

i won't learn to cook for a while, as we are starting out with basics...but i am sure there will be a lot more cooking in my life from now on~

well, because i am a harry potter fanatic, i was especially excited about their hot butterbeer latte & butterbeer frappuccino and have been wanting to stop by at a starbucks since yesterday so got my first cup of their "secret drink" first thing in the morning today!

i ended up going for a tall hot butterbeer latte which was missing some salt and really enjoyed it! but i will have to adjust the sweetness because i am more of a black-coffee-or-espresso-kind-of-a-girl!

Friday, November 1, 2013

temperature is finally dropping in los angeles (it's about time!) & it seems like a lot of people around me are feeling under the weather including myself... ...so i would like to introduce you to a soup that will surely get you healthy again! about two months ago for my mom's birthday, i decided to make healthy soup "i've been wanting to try but never got to try yet since i didn't have enough time in korea" called 구복탕 (gu-bok-tang)this soup is definitely a fancy food that is meant to be a health-foodand even though i haven't tried it yet, the concept was simple -- you just put all the ingredients that are known to be 'healthy' in the soup & the harmony of all the fresh seafood, poultry & herbs should do your body good!because i wanted to cook something special & healthy for my parents, i decided to give it a go and make something similar even though i
had no idea what it tastes like + no internet source had a real recipe
for this (sigh...)actual definition of 구복탕 (gu-bok-tang) is nine-luck-soup or soup with at least nine ingredients that are good for your bodyas i said, there is no one recipe & the restaurant that is famous for this soup also seems to use whatever is fresh & available during that seasonbut the soup seems to contain mix of these: korean silky fowl (오골계), korean chicken (토종닭), abalones (전복), octopus (문어), conch (소라), beef rib (소갈비), korean black pig (흙돼지 수육), black garlic (흑마늘), ginseng & other herbs (인삼), jujube (대추) and so on...

[prepping all the ingredients]based on what was fresh from the market that day, i decided to use whole chicken, abalones, mini octopus, giant clams, shrimps, chestnuts, mushrooms, samgyetang package (which is just an easy option to purchase ginseng, jujube and other herbs all-in-one), garlic, radish & green onionsi personally never tried to prep some of the seafood myself until that day, so i did get some help from mom & internet to clean them

[time to make the soup!]

for the soup, you don't need too much since you will be getting a nice broth out of all your healthy ingredients!

at first, i kept it simple with the samgyetang package, radish, jujube, garlic, chestnuts and of course, whole chicken to get the soup base...pretty much how you would make samgyetang, except you don't stuff the chicken! so boil...boil...boil.......................

then, i added abalones to the soup before switching pots

[once you have the soup ready, then transfer everything into a nice pot]

i put my shrimps on the bottom, then put the chicken, giant clams, mushrooms, abalones, chetnuts along with the samgyetang
with ginseng and chinese herbal medicine broth before adding baby octopus on top!

from there, all you need to do is to boil it few minutes because everything cooks pretty fast! shrimps will turn orange, clams will open up and baby octopus will change colors

which will let you know that it's time to add chopped green onions on top for decoration & ta-da!

once done, all you need to do is to bring over the pot to your table on top of portable gas stove to keep the soup warm throughout & enjoy!overall, this took me about 4 hours to make it including prep-time & to make the nice broth but it was so worth it because we thoroughly enjoyed it & literally finished the whole pot!